One Evening, at Grilly's
by Skye Silverwing
Summary: A short depiction of a conversation between several members of the main cast of Undertale, about regrets from remembered timelines.


One Evening, at Grillby's

By Skye Silverwing

The warm firelight from inside Grillby's Bar and Grill offered warmth and comradery in the cold night of Monster Town, in the Shadow of Mount Ebott. The new jukebox, a step up from the old one, actually played a gentle music as the patrons nursed their drinks and munched their food in companionable silence.

At the corner table, Undyne tilted back her seventh beer of the evening, Sans nursed a bottle of his "Special" ketchup, Papyrus munched on a burger, and Mettaton sipped a glass of his magic oil. Each of them knew, since the kid had finally revealed the truth about the timelines, why they were here. It… was hard remembering the past timelines. Alcohol helped… Some.

The silence was broken by Undyne grunting slightly. "You know the worst part… of remembering?" she said softly, setting the bottle down on the table.

The others looked at her, with varying levels of interest.

She sighed and looked into the bottle as if wishing it could refill itself. Or wishing it could banish the thoughts from her head. "It's not the pain of remembering fighting, or even dying to try to save everyone…" she said, "Though that does suck… a lot."

The others all nodded at that. With the exception of Sans, they had all felt the sting of the kid's attacks, and the slow, stinging pain as their bodies crumbled to dust. And Sans sympathized. It was only the kid's own determination that had stopped them short of doing the same to him.

Undyne signaled to Grillby to bring her another bottle. She sighed again. "No, at least when the kid was trying to kill us, we could justify fighting back." she said, a look of self-distain on her face. "The worst part is remembering what happened when they were trying to do it right. Trying to get through without killing anyone."

Mettaton nodded at that, understanding fully what Undyne meant, but Sans and Papyrus looked at her questioningly.

Undyne took the new bottle from Grillby and materialized a small blue magic spear to remove the cap. "Five times." She said, "I killed my best friend five times, while they were doing nothing but trying not to kill anyone. They just kept trying to show me mercy, until they eventually ran out of steam and healing items while I stabbed them to death with spears."

Mettaton broke down into tears. "I killed them four times." He said, a deep note of regret in his voice. "It took them so long to realize that the ratings were more important to me than actually killing them. I… I remember each time their heart broke under my stilettoed heel."

Sans shrugged. "It is a bit different for me, since, ya know, I never fought them when they weren't trying to kill everyone." He said, "Timelines reset, so I could afford not to care. But I get where you are coming from. I killed them when they were bad somethin' like four or five hundred times."

Undyne kind of accepted that. "I killed them about fifty times back then, too…" she said, "I can't talk to Alphys about it, because she never had occasion to actually fight them. She just doesn't understand."

Papyrus stared at his burger. "I… I am afraid I cannot relate that well, either." He said, softly. "I never killed the Human. I always stopped fighting when they were hurt badly enough and captured them."

Sans nodded proudly at his brother, but Undyne glared at him.

"That is bullshit." She snapped, "Even Toriel breaks down about the fact that she killed the kid once on accident. How the hell can you claim to have never done it?"

Mettaton nodded. "Even Blooky has killed the little darling." He said, "They don't like talking about it, but it happened."

Papyrus sighed. "I was never really trying to kill the human… I just wanted to capture them." He said, "I never expected that it was Asgore's plan to take their soul, so I wanted to avoid hurting them too much. I am used to training with Sans, and he only has one HP, so I always had to be very careful. I guess it carried over."

Undyne thought about that for a long moment, and then slid from her seat, and dropped to her knees. With tears in her eyes, she looked up at the tall skeleton.

"Papyrus… Would you teach me how to fight like you?"


End file.
